Tag Archives: NYC & Company

For people near and far, Astoria is the next go-to destination, according to a new neighborhood tourism campaign.

Astoria has been selected by NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for New York City, as the next spotlight area in its Neighborhood x Neighborhood campaign.

“From the remarkable Greek and international cuisine, to the fascinating cultural and arts scene, we are pleased to be promoting all there is to see and do in Astoria,” said Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company. “We invite visitors from around the world and across the United States to discover and rediscover Astoria.”

Starting Tuesday, Astoria is being highlighted as the third feature in a three-part Neighborhood x Neighborhood documentary series. The videos in the series feature a local’s guide to the neighborhood, focusing on shops, restaurants, attractions and the history that makes the area distinct. They also include reasons for both tourists and locals to explore.

“It’s no surprise that the borough of nations is home to Astoria, a culturally diverse community known as both a creative neighborhood full of praiseworthy cultural institutions and a food destination popular for everything from Greek to Italian to Brazilian cuisine,” said Marty Markowitz, vice president of borough promotion and engagement at NYC & Company. “There is something for everyone in this bustling Queens neighborhood, and we encourage New Yorkers and visitors to spend a day in Astoria.”

The “must-see Astoria” highlights featured in the Neighborhood x Neighborhood campaign include the Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria Park with its views of Midtown Manhattan, the neighborhood’s prominent Greek culture, restaurant and social scene, and boutique designers.

The Neighborhood x Neighborhood campaign, first launched in 2013, targets outside visitors and New Yorkers and was designed to highlight the diversity of the city’s five boroughs and encourage people to explore outside “traditional tourist locations.”

Two western Queens neighborhoods are part of a new campaign encouraging New Yorkers to stretch their legs and explore their own backyards.

NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for New York City, has launched a new promotional campaign called “See Your City” to motivate residents to explore the diverse neighborhoods found in all five boroughs.

“For visitors, a trip to New York City is a vacation for a lifetime. For a lucky 8 million, it’s just a subway ride away,” said Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company. “We want to give New Yorkers a new perspective on the five boroughs. Start thinking of the more than 250 New York City neighborhoods as 250 opportunities to travel.”

Content featuring itinerary suggestions and video postcards will be included on NYC & Company’s website and five of the 10 neighborhoods, including Long Island City, will be promoted through custom illustrations inspired by vintage travel posters.

The LIC poster features an art piece at Socrates Sculpture Park overlooking the Manhattan skyline and the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.

“With See Your City, we were challenged with the task of selling New York City to New Yorkers, and our goal was to create inspiration to convince New Yorkers to explore their own backyards,” said Emily Lessard, NYC & Company creative director.

The See Your City campaign will be promoted through bus shelters throughout the city, posts on NYC & Company’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, commercials running in city taxicabs, and through American Express’ digital channels.

Since Oct. 15, social media ambassadors have been promoting the program on Instagram through sharing images with the official hashtag #seeyourcity.

NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the Big Apple, declared Curious George, the beloved children’s cartoon and book character, as the sixth Official NYC Family Ambassador on Tuesday.

Kids and their parents can click here to view family-friendly activities and destinations recommended by the little brown monkey. Encouraged and highlighted excursions include but are not limited to beaches, zoos, museums and Central Park.

“With the help of the Official NYC Family Ambassador, Curious George, we are pleased to welcome even more families to discover the endless urban activities in New York City’s five boroughs,” President and CEO of NYC & Company Fred Dixon said. “Curious George is a beloved and amiable character known for his adventures, and we look forward to working with him to encourage family travelers to have an enriched vacation experience in New York City.”

Sixteen educational institutions will be participating with NYC & Company to construct a Curious George activity sheet that will inspire the whole family to hunt and tour each station. Some of the institutions include the New York Transit Museum, the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian-NY.

“Curious George has brought joy and a love of adventure to millions of children for generations,” President of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) Trade & Consumer Publishing Gary Gentel said. “HMH is thrilled that he’ll be welcoming families to New York City, a city that certainly inspires curiosity and exploration. With over 75 million books in print and several engaging apps available worldwide, Curious George promises to be a beloved ambassador.”

While New York struggles to recover from the recession of 2008, it is clear that at least one of its major industries is thriving like never before–New York City tourism.

In 2012, the city welcomed a record-breaking 52 million visitors, despite the devastation wrought by Sandy. According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, these tourists, who paid for a total of 29 million hotel room nights, poured more than $55 billion into the city’s economy.

What’s more, the city’s hotel occupancy stands at 87 percent, the highest in the nation. Better yet, there is good reason to believe that tourism remains a growing industry, with much of its potential still untapped, particularly outside of Manhattan. In the past six years, 72 new hotels have been built in boroughs other than Manhattan and a record-high percentage of non-Manhattan hotels are under development for the next four years.

Bloomberg and the city’s official marketing, tourism and partnership organization, NYC & Company, deserve enormous credit for nurturing the tourism boom. They are doing excellent work in promoting tourism beyond Manhattan with initiatives like “Neighborhood X Neighborhood,” which is designed to support local businesses and encourage tourism in communities outside traditional tourist locations throughout the five boroughs.

Indeed, NYC & Company recently announced that Corona, Forest Hills and Jackson Heights are the next destinations to be featured in “Neighborhood x Neighborhood.”

NYC & Company is to be commended for this increased emphasis on non-traditional attractions to go along with its promotion of big-name sites and destinations.

In fact, it only makes sense to turn at least some portion of the responsibility for promoting places to see and things to do outside of Manhattan over to the people that know their home boroughs better than anyone else.

That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to give each borough a portion of its own Hotel Occupancy Tax Revenue, based on the tax revenue each generates, up to a maximum of $300,000. Manhattan would still get the bulk of the promotional dollars, but it would increase revenue for Queens.

Among other initiatives, the funding would support continuous updates and strategic distribution of the “This is Queens” app, developed by the Queens Chamber of Commerce to provide visitors—and locals too, for that matter—with information about where to go in Queens, what to do and how to get there. The free app was unveiled recently to rave reviews.

With the resources for the job in hand, we would widely and unabashedly promote the fact that not only is Queens home to a host of great restaurants featuring as diverse an array of international cuisines as there is to be found anywhere, but that you can enjoy unique and memorable meals here at much lower prices than in Manhattan.

We would also tout that Queens is home to some of the city’s most popular destinations, including Citi Field, the National Tennis Center and Resorts World Casino, a world-class gaming hall overlooking world-class thoroughbred racing at Aqueduct.

We would let bird watchers and hikers know about the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and arts lovers about our galleries and museums. In case they weren’t already aware, we would let fans of top-flight college sports know all that’s available at St. John’s University.

Highlighting bargains, unearthing gems and underscoring the city’s vibrancy and vitality outside of Manhattan would help foster the growth and expansion of New York City’s tourism industry.

As for Queens, everybody else would come to learn what we already know: As the most diverse county in the country, perhaps the most diverse area in the world, Queens represents what New York City is really all about.